SRCE encourages the systematic application of open education principles, the development and application of open educational resources and open educational practices at the higher education institutions.
Open Education (OE) enables all individuals to learn anywhere, at any time using any device and with the support of anyone (European Commission, 2013).
It is based on digital technologies and primarily refers to the removal of all kinds of obstacles in education.
- Promotes openness in formal and informal education
- Encourages educational institutions to be more transparent and to become more accountable to society in terms of how they provide their educational service
- Encourages a change in mindset as openness becomes a core value
- Includes resources, such as tools and practices, that are used in an open sharing framework to improve educational access and effectiveness
- Combines the tradition of sharing and creating knowledge using 21st century digital technology to create a large space of open shared educational resources available to all people, ensuring their right to know, connect and collaborate.
Open Education must be free, available anywhere and anytime, and allow modification and use of educational materials with the aim of further sharing information with all interested persons.
Open Educational Practices (OEP) are collaborative practices that include the creation, use, and reuse of OER, as well as pedagogical practices employing participatory technologies and social networks for interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation, and empowerment of learners (Cronin, 2017).
Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others (UNESCO, 2012). Open Educational Resources include entire courses, learning materials, content modules, collections, journals and software to support the development, use and reuse of learning content, and contribute to the improvement of the quality of the educational process and make education accessible to everyone under equal conditions. There are more and more examples of open educational resources in the world today, as well as in Croatia. OER contribute to the universal availability of education and its democratization, and enable free access to educational materials, their multiple use, modification and sharing.
Open Education in SRCE
The University Computing Centre (SRCE) supported the Croatian Declaration on Open Access with a Letter of Support (PDF, 185 KB) and encourages open access. Supporting the principles of open access, SRCE adopted the document Open Access Policy (PDF, 859 KB) on 3 September 2014.
In accordance with its role of providing infrastructural and professional support for the application of digital technologies in education, SRCE actively promotes the concept of open education with the aim of removing obstacles and increasing the availability of educational content, the terms of which include free and open access and allow processing and further sharing. In addition to implementing the open education policy in terms of creating and sharing own materials in open access, as well as materials related to the field of open education, SRCE participates in creating a framework for the adoption of open educational resources and leads initiatives to gather the community of creators of open educational resources. The objective of SRCE activities aimed at supporting open education is the systematic application of the principles of open education, the development and application of open educational resources and open educational practices in institutions within the higher education system.
SRCE actively participates in international initiatives in the field of open education.
